I've been meaning to sign up to this forum for quite some time (the heritage railways trying to have it 'both ways' thread got me 90% of the way there). Maybe not the best first post, but here goes.
When I first saw the photos of this vandalism, on Twitter of all places, I was upset but not especially surprised, as it isn't the first case of small railways being vandalised that I've heard of; in the last year alone. I also assumed that there would be an angry knee-jerky over-reaction from the 'cut off there (sic) hands' mob online. It looks like I was right!
This is what I thought when I saw the photos as well. This doesn't excuse the behaviour of the miscreants in any way, but derelict property tends to attract vandalism. This isn't unique to the world of railways or transport. Let a building sit idle for too long without any security measures and it will be picked clean, and every window will be smashed.
I'm one of those people who like looking to see what is on the 'dump' when I visit new airports. This probably puts me in the 1% of travellers through a given airport.
I'm in two minds about heritage railways though. At their best (or at least most fiscally viable) they present a sort of sanitised version of the past that never actually existed. It gives visitors the chance to imagine they are extras in an adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel. Like in the historic aviation world, this can get overly saccharin very quickly, and it can appear that more time is spent on various '50s nights, '30s nights, swing bands, dinners and dressing up than actually restoring aircraft.
At the same time there are many aviation museums with one Meteor rotting into the weeds, one Vulcan with water pouring through the wings, lots of faded, peeling paint and lots of hazed over cockpit canopies. The spotters and aviation diehards prefer the latter, right down to the yellowed, hand-typed scraps of paper telling you what each crudely excavated shard of scrap metal supposedly belonged to. The bulk of visitors probably want a 'Duxford' or 'Cosford' experience; especially if they have kids in tow. The aircraft (much as the trains) are just part of the bigger package and experience.
Probably the heritage railway and historic aviation world share a lot of the same elements here. There are lots of people willing to tell the small museums above exactly which aircraft should be preserved, and how badly they got the shade of grey wrong, and why they are idiots for making some other minor transgression or historic inaccuracy. Said 'enthusiasts' don't always dip especially deeply into their own pockets to correct these errors.You can't really avoid the fact, however, that a lot of these museums are aircraft graveyards which exist more for the indulgence of retired men who wish to spanner aircraft for a few hours a week, away from 'er indoors. The heritage railway community seems likewise to be littered with numerous 'The Class (whatever) Preservation Society' outfits with their circa 1998 Geocities websites and rotting slabs of defunct traction dumped along a heritage line somewhere in the middle of nowhere. In both camps "restoration projects" is probably hopelessly optimistic thetoric used to refer to scrap metal. 45015 on the Battlefield Line, for example, is simply dodging the cutting torch out of sheer luck. With all the will in the world it will never move again under its own power. I got pretty tired of the various aviation restoration groups who were going to be doing something within the next couple of months... then again I never donated that much money to them!
In terms of promoting the message of "this outfit have their stuff together and have a sustainable business model", long lines of faded mk1s, anonymous rusting boilers dumped in the weeds, rotting colliery engines, and a Class 26 under a tarp that hasn't been touched since 1991, don't really cut it. Likewise most people probably don't want to see knackered aeroplanes when they visit an airport or museum as it suggests the place is disorganised, run by chancers of fantasists, and is potentially a dangerous place to be.
And any rotting stuff attracts Urbex-ers and vandals in no short order.
Vandalism isn't a new phenomenon. The difference is that we hear about it more readily, and we hear about cases from further away. The Twitter-sphere also helps to perpetuate a sort of continuous loop of anger as well. Don't worry, something new will be along shortly to make you even more angry.
I don't understand those who take relish in pointing out how steeply in decline this country supposedly is. Especially when such types are fairly often rabid nationalists who are the first to proclaim their love for that same country. I think it must be an age thing!